Paul has the power in this deal because, like Carmelo Anthony last season, he will be a free agent at the end of the season and any team trading for Paul will want him to sign an extension prior to the trade. However, Moke Hamilton had an interesting tweet on the subject:

It has been widely accepted in Knick nation that Paul will be playing alongside Melo and STAT but I warn Knick fans to beware of other teams. Paul is a superstar and other teams have more cap space and trade assets. He wants to play in New York yes but it makes more financial sense for him to maybe play elsewhere. It will be interesting to see what happens but right now there is absolutely no guarantee that Paul will be a Knick in 2012.